10 Tips for a Pest-Free Home During Winter

Written By ShayePublished on 11/28/2020Updated on 10/4/2024

Homeowners are no strangers to winter pest infestations. Every season, mice, silverfish, and other pests emerge from their hideouts. Your home offers them warm shelter and nutrients to survive until spring. However, pest infestations can ruin crawl space insulation and wooden supports and cause structural damage. Now is the time to inspect your home and take steps to prevent pests from establishing a haven.

This page lists ten tips for maintaining a pest-free home this winter.

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10 Ways to Prevent Pests This Winter

Keep your home safe, dry, and pest-free this winter season. Here are ten ways to prevent pest infestations in your home:

1. Seal Windows and Doors

Poorly sealed windows and doors provide pests with easy access into your home. These tiny creatures find their way through small openings, often undetected by the naked eye. Infestations usually occur before you even know there’s a problem. Ensure these openings are correctly sealed to prevent pest invasion.

2. Dispose and Store Food Properly

Pests seek food sources, so properly disposing of scraps and storing food in sealed containers is essential to preventing infestations. Pests contaminate food and countertops with bacteria and feces that could cause disease and illness.

3. Seal Exterior Wall Cracks

Mice can enter small 1/4″ openings. As temperatures decrease, these rodents seek warm nesting areas, making your home the ideal place. Wall cracks provide easy access to living areas, basements, and crawl spaces. Inspect your home and seal cracks to prevent rodents. Contact a professional if you notice severe wall cracking, as these cracks may signal foundation damage, requiring expert repair solutions.

4. Store Firewood Outdoors

Nothing beats snuggling under a warm blanket beside a cozy fireplace on a cold winter night. However, storing firewood indoors may ruin that experience, as the wood logs may harbor pests. Keep firewood outdoors at least 20 feet from your home to prevent pest entry.

5. Inspect Gift Boxes and Packages

Groundworks inspector clipboard boxes basement

Don’t accept gift packages or retrieve holiday décor from storage without checking them first. They may harbor pests seeking shelter from the winter cold. Open and inspect the package contents to ensure no pests are present.

6. Elevate Boxes

Low-lying storage boxes offer easy access to winter pests, especially when the boxes are filled with items. Look for scratch marks and pest droppings around the storage boxes. Remove the boxes from the ground and place them in an elevated area if the boxes are pest-free.

7. Maintain Clean Countertops

Clean food crumbs from kitchen counters as you prepare and serve meals. Pests are attracted to even the tiniest crumbs and can invade your kitchen and home. Don’t give them access to a free meal, especially while you’re sleeping.

8. Place Bins in Enclosed Areas

indoor kitchen trash can with lid under sink cabinet

Ensure indoor trash cans have lids and are properly enclosed to deter pests. Outdoors, you can deter raccoons and other rodents by storing trash bins in enclosed, locked areas, ensuring each has a tightly-sealed, animal-proof lid.

9. Encapsulate the Crawl Space

Crew Installing crawl space vapor barrier for encapsulation

Crawl space encapsulation ensures the area beneath your home remains dry, pest-free, and sealed from external elements. Heavy-duty vapor barrier liners cover the crawl space floor and walls, ensuring adequate protection. Access door installation and vent closure are also implemented, along with other solutions as necessary.

10. Seal Crawl Space Vents

Open crawl space vents allow easy entry for pests. Pest infestations can be prevented by installing vent covers. These covers also enhance home energy efficiency and moisture prevention, making them cost-effective.

Contact JES Foundation Repair for a Free Inspection

JES Foundation Repair provides crawl space encapsulation solutions to keep your Washington, D.C., home safe, dry, and warm this winter. Schedule your free crawl space inspection and learn how our encapsulation solutions safeguard your home and family.

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Crawl Space Encapsulation FAQs

How long does crawl space encapsulation take?

The duration of the project varies based on the crawl space size, the extent of existing damage, and the specific solutions implemented. Most encapsulation projects take between one and three days to complete, including moisture control, insulation, and sealing. JES Foundation Repair teams work efficiently to ensure your crawl space is fully protected on schedule. Contact us for more information and to schedule a free inspection.

What is crawl space encapsulation and how can it help?

Crawl space encapsulation is a process where a protective barrier, usually a heavy-duty polyethylene barrier, is installed to completely cover your crawl space – including floors, foundation walls, and possibly even the ceiling. This creates a moisture and vapor barrier that helps to:

Control moisture levels: By sealing out excess ground moisture, encapsulation can prevent the growth of mold and mildew, which thrive in damp conditions.
Improve indoor air quality: By preventing the upward movement of air from the crawl space, encapsulation can stop the spread of mold spores or other pollutants into your home, thus improving indoor air quality.
Increase energy efficiency: An encapsulated crawl space can reduce the amount of cold or hot air entering the home, which can lead to lower heating and cooling costs.
Prevent pest infestations: A well-sealed crawl space can discourage pests by eliminating the damp, dark environment they often prefer.

Keep in mind, crawl space encapsulation should be performed by a professional to ensure it’s done correctly and effectively.

Does crawl space encapsulation add value to your home?

Not directly, but it does ensure the value of your home doesn’t go down. Plus, if you’re looking to sell your home, crawl space encapsulation makes your home more attractive to buyers.

Think about it this way: a home without encapsulation is likely to have a rotting and damaged crawl space. That home will always be worth less than the one with encapsulation, so it does make your home more valuable to buyers.

Shaye Glisson

Shaye is an SEO Content Writer for Groundworks with over twelve years of experience creating helpful content across various industries, including home services and retail. She is a Gulf Coast native and writes from her firsthand knowledge of the area's hurricane and flood impacts on the local community. In her free time, Shaye enjoys exploring the local food and music scenes.

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